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Talk:Goldi Nahir/@comment-27565382-20160109213728/@comment-5390364-20160113045855
Can we keep this civil? If you disagree with me, that's fine, but don't just say that my point of view is laughable and leave it at that. Thanks. A) No, the male characters were hardly more clothed. They had pants and shoulderpads. B) No, Hunter did not concede that there were no other female characters. He merely said that the gamers could simply stop using the female characters, to which Goldi suggested there would be no female representation. Ignoring the fact that we still have no confirmation of whether or not Hunter's group can choose to actually play as the females, Hunter retorted that her point was already invalid because Degrassi's gaming team actually has a female member. I would like to discuss this in particular. Yael is not treated any differently within her team because she is a girl. From what we know, there are absolutely zero exclusionary policies against females that want to be on these gaming teams. The reason that we see that less women happen to be interested in gaming is the same reason that STEM students are predominantly male despite the fact that many elementary aged girls display an interest in mathematics and science. We socialize young girls into subconsciously internalizing that things like STEM or gaming should be left to males. That they are for boys. That maybe their brothers or father should fix something, and not them. That they shouldn't get their hands dirty. That they might get hurt doing something boys do. That they are not ladylike interests to partake in. That the accomplishments of a male would matter more than the accomplishments of a female. Etcetera, etcetera. Goldi is overlooking this. I am an electrical engineering student and I can attest that at my university, it is the norm for there to be only 1-5 women in my classes. Does that mean that my field is inherently sexist? Absolutely not. In the same way, these gaming competitions are not inherently sexist. C) Suspension of disbelief. This is Degrassi, the school where the student council often times appears to have more power than the principal. I'm sure most schools wouldn't condone games like this, but this is something that I don't think is all that difficult to accept as a plot point. D) Given the more whimsical graphics, mechanics, and lack of blood and gore? Yeah, I'm maintaining my position. I highly doubt we're dealing with a game with a storyline laden with heavy sexual content, drug use, profanity, etc. E) So would you suggest that the way men are often depicted in media such as video games, i.e. strong, tall, and muscular, doesn't contribute to the expectation of hypermasculinity imposed on males in our society? F) Do you really think that male players in general see these powerful, strong males as self-inserts? These men often have bodies that you would need a near impossible BMI to possess. I do not see how it is reasonable to think that, when often times these characters could not be any further from the reality of what we actually look like. Using myself as an example, I am a male with a petite frame and I am relatively short. No, I usually cannot identify with males in video games as they are typically portrayed. Most people do not. The ubiquity of these characters, compounded with what we see everyday in all forms of media (the attractive, muscular, edgy male lead in a movie, glorification of athletes, ...) creates the preconceived notion of male beauty, what our society finds attractive in males. If you can't see that males are indeed sexualized and how prevalent it is, look no further than this very wiki. Members here can often be seen fawning over what are usually conventially attractive men all the time in hoards. Shirtless, attractive men? Guys showing off big muscles? And people making sexual innuendos? Umm, yeah, that sounds like objectification. Minor things, like, say, Zig wearing no sleeves and exposing his muscles? This obviously extends beyond the wiki, but can't you see how easily men are objectified in the same way that women are?